2007 Poll - Executive Summary

Executive Summary

In January and February, the Statistical Consulting Service (SCS) in the Department of Statistics conducted the web-based Technology Poll, which contained a series of questions commissioned by the Office of the Chief Information Officer at The Ohio State University. This annual omnibus survey provides data that is used by many departments for strategic planning in developing and assessing programs and services.

How the survey was conducted The survey is based on responses to web questionnaires completed during winter quarter 2007 by 464 faculty, 643 staff, 258 graduate/professional students, and 452 undergraduate students. Human Resources randomly selected a total of 2,000 faculty and staff, excluding clinical faculty, from its database for sampling. The Office of the Registrar randomly selected 2,000 graduate students and 2,000 undergraduate students from the Columbus campus, a smaller sampling than for the 2006 CIO survey. The student sample was decreased because SCS researchers, realizing that OSU populations are over-surveyed, wanted as much as possible to protect the viability of future surveying. They also felt that decreasing the sample size would only marginally impact the sampling error. For example, decreasing the number of undergraduates sampled from 5,000 to 2,500 only increases the margin of error by 1.3 percentage points.

Faculty and staff for whom Columbus campus addresses were available received a personalized notification letter by campus mail briefly informing them of the survey. Recipients were advised that they would receive an e-mail in a few days directing them to the survey web site and the e-mail address and subject line of the e-mail. Notification letters were not sent to students.

Sampled individuals received an invitation e-mail at their published OSU e-mail address that briefly explained the survey and included a uniquely coded URL link to the web survey. This code made it possible to track responses and reduced the chance of unsampled individuals completing a questionnaire. To improve participation, students were told they would be entered in a drawing for one of four Apple iPods. To increase the response rate across all groups (faculty, staff, graduate/professional students, undergraduate students), two reminder e-mails were sent to those who had not yet completed the questionnaire.

Response Rate and Margin of Error The table below shows the response rates and margins of sampling error, with 2006 also included. The margins of error show the difference in percentage points in either direction to what would be obtained by interviewing all individuals in the population. In three of the four populations, the number of responses surpassed the minimal level desired. However, the response rate for the graduate student population dropped dramatically from the previous year resulting in a total number of responses lower than hoped for. Despite this low response rate, the margin of error is only slightly larger than what was expected.

Table 1: Margins of error for 2006 and 2007 surveys

2006

2007

Grouping

Response Rate

Margin of Sampling Error

Response Rate

Margin of Sampling Error

Faculty

415/2000 = 20.8%

4.8

464/2000 = 23.8%

4.5

Staff

406/2000 = 20.3%

4.8

643/2000 = 32.2%

3.9

Graduate

1024/4200 = 24.4%

3.0

258/2000 = 12.9%

6.1

Undergraduate

838/5000 = 16.8%

3.4

452/2500 = 18.2%

4.6

In addition to sampling error, the survey is subject to other potential sources of imprecision and bias that may include question wording, question ordering, and low response rate. The low response rate can be attributed to biasing factors such as over-surveying by previous surveys and refusal of some individuals to complete the survey due to its excessive length.

Non-participation and Use of Incentives Non-participation in surveys is a growing problem. The notification letter was sent to increase participation by alerting faculty and staff to the e-mail survey invitation. The use of Apple iPods as incentives was intended to increase participation among undergraduate students. The marked difference between undergraduate and graduate response rates suggests that this type of incentive may need to be expanded to other populations in future surveys. A major obstacle to higher participation rates for web surveys may be associated with the mode itself. Many individuals have more than one e-mail address and may prefer an e-mail address that is not in the Human Resources database. Less preferred e-mail addresses may not be forwarded to preferred addresses and may be checked only occasionally or not at all. Software filters may identify e-mail survey invitations as spam, and individuals may be reluctant to open e-mails from sources unknown to them.

Poll CategoriesThe CIO Office prepared this analysis of 2007 poll results, grouping poll questions into these categories: general satisfaction with CIO services; type, number, and connections for personal computing devices; and use of instructional technologies. The survey again asked all four populations about their current and future use of the OSU Libraries, and included three new questions covering campus awareness of the Office of Information Technology's non-credit short courses on Information Technology. In addition, the poll continued to include a question related to faculty familiarity with the Ohio Learning Network, its services for online courses, faculty development, and grants opportunities.

Data Analysis SCS staff downloaded the data and performed basic exploratory analyses to produce frequency tables for each of the questions, which were stored by group (faculty, staff, graduate students, and undergraduate students). They calculated percentages on the frequency tables in one of two ways. Where individuals could select only one response from a set of options, the percentage was calculated using percent of total number of individuals responding to the questionnaire in the group. Where individuals could select more than one response, the percentage was calculated using the percent of total individuals responding to that question in the group. They prepared crosstab calculations comparing questions across all groups and produced a combined weighted average report for a sample of questions. SCS also provided summary tables of open-ended comments for questions in each of the four groups.

Survey RationaleThe CIO Technology Poll data are used as metrics to help benchmark progress on the implementation of the university's technology strategic plan and to capture performance indicators for the budget guidance process. The findings derived from the survey continue to indicate a general satisfaction with IT services and resources offered by the Offices of CIO; however, campus awareness of CIO communications and initiatives remain an issue.

Computers, Internet Access and Instructional Technologies

Computer Ownership and Internet AccessTrends in personally owned multiple computing devices reveal almost universal access to personal computers in the residence among faculty, graduate, and undergraduate students. Staff trail only slightly behind. Sixty-six percent of the faculty have access to a second home computer (statistically unchanged from the previous year), as do 56% of the graduate/professional students up (7%), 30% of the undergraduate students (down 3%), and 45% of the staff (a slight decrease from the 41% reported the previous year). Respondents in all groups showed an overwhelming preference for Windows PC platforms, greatest this year among staff (95%), followed by undergraduate (90%), graduate/professional students (87%), and then faculty (79%). Connectivity to the university network from home has remained almost ubiquitous (92%) for the OSU community for the past two years (up from 88% in 2005) accessing the network via several different Internet Service Providers (ISPs); the data showed few users of dial-up service compared to high-speed, broadband providers.

Computer Lab UseAlthough the 2002 PlanIT Customer Satisfaction Survey noted students want more lab seats and longer hours, 74% of the undergraduates (down from 77% reported in 2006) and 74% of the graduate/professional students (down from 72% reported last year) report using the on-campus computer labs fewer than ten hours week. In general, use of university computer labs above 10 hours per week remained unchanged for both populations in 2007, with few students in either population using the computer labs more than 20 hours per week.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)PDAs continue to be used more among faculty (33% compared to 38% in 2006) than the other three campus populations, who indicated somewhat less use ranging from 23% for staff to 17% for graduate/professional students and15% for undergraduates. However, the overall use of this type mobile technology within the university community decreased by 5% during the past two years. There was an overall increase of 17% across all four populations for PDAs with a wireless network connection to 49% among all four groups, with the widest use among undergraduates (56%, compared to 44% in 2006), followed by staff (55% compared to 27% in 2006), graduate/professional students (43%, compared to 30% the previous year), and faculty usage was 41% (up from the 33% reported in the previous year's survey).

Instructional TechnologiesThe responses on faculty use of instructional technologies were similar to what was reported the previous year, with approximately half of the respondents acknowledging the use of this technology in nearly every class. In 2007, fewer faculty indicated never using instructional technologies during the previous autumn quarter, (7%, down from 12 % in the last poll). Eighty-two percent of faculty said that the most important consideration in implementing technology was an ease of use without the need for technical support. Access to software, equipment and Internet-ready classrooms was almost as important consideration for implementing instructional technology and the second most cited incentive (77%, a slight increase from 75% the previous year). Help and support available to use instructional technology remained a lesser concern (56%, remaining almost unchanged from the 53% in 2006), while only 40% of the faculty (38% reported in 2006) continued to focus on maintaining intellectual property when developing instructional technologies. Rewards for using instructional technology continued to remain least important (28%, basically unchanged from 27% in 2006). Among graduate/professional students, 48% indicated their courses incorporated instructional technologies in nearly every classroom (up significantly from the 34% reported in 2006) and a somewhat higher response than what undergraduates report (45%, up somewhat from 41% last year). Compared to the 2006 polling, undergraduates expressed about the same interest in online classes (33%, basically unchanged from 35% in the previous year's poll), but graduate/professional students' interest increased to 28% from 21% reported in 2006. Although the use information technology in courses remains an important consideration for both student populations, 68% of the undergraduates (up from 62% in 2006) and 74% of the graduate/professional students (up 7% from 2006) prefer face-to-face instruction as their primary mode for instructional delivery.

General Satisfaction with CIO Services

Twelve percent of the faculty report being very satisfied with Office of the CIO's Instructional support services, unchanged the 2006 polling. Approximately half of the faculty (49%) reported being very satisfied to somewhat satisfied with the support services provided through the TELR Office (Technology Enhanced Learning and Research), the university's resource for eLearning information and expert advice. Only 10% of the faculty reported being unsatisfied with the services (unchanged from the 11% in 2006) and 41% reported not using the services. Approximately half of all the university community expressed satisfaction with the communications produced by the Office of the CIO (e.g. Guide to Services; Orientation handouts; and CIO, TELR, and OIT web sites) to keep informed about technology-related events and services on campus (undergraduates 57%, faculty 56%; followed by 51% of the staff and 40% of the graduate/professional students). The majority of the respondents felt that instructional technology resources at OSU met their technology needs (81% undergraduates, 71% graduate/professional, 69% faculty and 62% staff). These responses reflect a 7% increase for faculty but an 8% decline for the staff.

Information Technology Support Resources and ServicesA majority of the university community surveyed in 2007 indicated approval of the IT services on campus. Eighty-seven percent of the undergraduates (85% in 2006) were either very satisfied to somewhatsatisfiedfollowed by 86% of the faculty (78% reported the previous year), and 85% of the graduate/professional students (89% in 2006) compared to 75% of the staff (in contrast to the 85% in 2006). Noteworthy were the unchanged views of faculty (5%) who either strongly agreed or agreed that IT was a factor in coming to OSU or a factor for remaining at OSU (16%, up slightly from 14% for the previous year). The poll results indicate that more than two-thirds of the faculty (70%, basically unchanged from 2006) and three-quarters of the staff (75%, up from 68% from the previous year) were either very satisfied to somewhat satisfied with the helpfulness and responsiveness of IT support, whereas only half of the graduate/professional (54%) and undergraduates (49%) responded similarly to IT support services. With regard to central OSU e-mail services (not individual college or department service), almost three-quarters of the university community report being somewhat satisfied to very satisfied with the services. Eighty-one percent of the undergraduates report being very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with central e-mail services followed by graduate/professional students and staff (71%) and then faculty (70%). The findings tracked similarly for the four population's responses to general overall level of satisfaction for IT at OSU. Notable were the differences between undergraduates who were familiar or very familiar (40% v. 51% in 2005) with the IT resources on campus compared to the 29% graduate/professional student population (up somewhat from 24% in 2005), followed by 27% staff (down from 30% last year) and faculty (25%, down from 34% reported in 2005). Yet, each of the surveyed groups believes that campus' Information Technology resources generally meet their technology needs. Security and privacy remain two areas of marked interest in the 2007 campus poll. Overall, security of their electronic data continues to remain a serious concern among faculty. Over two-thirds of the faculty were either very concerned (28%) or somewhat concerned (41%) regarding data security (compared to the 30% indicating being very concerned or 47% concerned in 2006). Additionally, three-fourths of the faculty expressed various levels of concern about the privacy of their communications, with 32% being very concerned (in contrast to 38% in 2005) and 44% somewhat concerned, up 4% from 2006).

Type, Number, and Connections for Personal Computing Devices

Home Computers As noted in the past several years, home computing has become ubiquitous. Almost all faculty, graduate/professional, undergraduates, and staff have access to personal computers in the home (98%, 99%, 99%, and 94% respectively in 2007 compared to 99%, 98%, 98%, and 93% for the same groups in 2006). Some differences in type and number of computers continue to be found between faculty and students. Among the respondents reporting local residence or home computer use, there is a continued increase of laptop use as the primary computer across the four campus populations: approximately two-thirds of the graduate/professional and undergraduate students (62%, up from 49% for undergraduates in 2006) compared 46% for faculty and 32% of the staff. The platform for the primary home computer (desktop or laptop) overwhelmingly remains Windows PC (90% staff, 90% undergraduates, 87% graduate/professionals and 79% among faculty). Macintosh computers are used by only 20% of the faculty, down slightly from 23% reported in 2006) as their primary platform. In the other groups, Macintosh platforms accounted for a significantly smaller percentage of the home computer environment among graduate/professional students (15%) and undergraduates (10%, but up from 5% in 2006) and staff (5%).

Secondary Computers Having a secondary computer at home is commonplace among many members of university community. Three-fourths of the faculty (76%) and over half of graduate/professionals (56%) compared to 45% of the staff and 30% of undergraduates report having access to two or more computers at home in 2007. Secondary computers were laptops for 59% of faculty (up 10% from the previous year), 47% of the graduate/professionals students, 44% of undergraduates, and 44% of staff (up 7% for the later group). The use of wireless connections for primary and secondary computers continued to increase across the university community: graduate/professional students (primary: 77% v. 66% and secondary: 63% v. 56% in 2006), undergraduates (75% v. 64% in 2006), faculty (primary: 68% v. 57% and secondary: 70% v. 60% in 2006). While the increase of computers with wireless connections was found among all members of the university community, the swing was not as great among staff (primary: 54% v. 42% and secondary to 61% v. 45% for the previous year). As with the primary computers, the platform for secondary computers remains overwhelmingly Windows, with Macintosh being used in numbers similar to its use on a primary computer (faculty 18%; undergraduates 7%, graduate/professional students 6%, and staff 6%).

Internet Service Provider for Home Computers Between 1999 and 2006, ISP use from home has steadily increased and has remained unchanged from last year's level of 92% for a connection to campus from a local residence. From 1999 to 2002, the percentage of respondents reporting use of an ISP to connect to the university network was 78%, 80%, 82%, 88%, respectively and connectivity had remained around 88% between 2002 and 2005. Use of Roadrunner for connection increased from 19% in 2001 to 45% in 2007. HomeNet (45% in 1999, down to 2% this year) and dial-up and DSL services (at 17% at compared to 23% last year and 42% in 2003) both declined in use, eclipsed by high-speed, broadband service (68% in 2007, up from 62%, last year and 45% in 2003) as the primary connection to the university network. Additionally, there was a significant difference among the four groups not having an ISP, with 8% overall reporting no home connection to OSU, down from 12% in 2005. While only 3% of the undergraduates (unchanged from last year) and 6% of graduate/professional students (unchanged from 7% in 2006) lack a home connection to the university network, only 4% of the faculty (down from 4% last year and 9% in 2005) and staff continue to lag somewhat behind the other groups (14% in 2007, down from 16% reported last year and 20% in 2005). This year, fewer undergraduates (83%) reported having a home ISP prior to coming to OSU (down slightly from 90% reported last year, and significantly fewer (46%) retained this service (down from 67% the previous year). Seventy-four percent of graduate students report having a home ISP prior to coming to OSU (basically unchanged from 76% reported last year, but a significant change from 59% in 2002) and similar to the trend with undergraduates, only 42% retained the service (compared to 85% reported last year). All populations report a slight increase in connectivity from the previous year; however, staff continued to trail all groups in access to an ISP (14% still lack a home ISP to connect to campus), but significantly improved from 37% reporting no home connectivity in 2001 and 16% in 2006. Only 6% of the faculty lacked connectivity to the university network, surprisingly increasing from the 4% reported in 2006. Undergraduate students remain the most connected (only 3% did not have an ISP in 2007 compared to 6% in 2005). Graduate students follow closely with 6% not having an ISP in 2007, a continued improvement from 11%% in 2005. The reported hourly usage varied among those who do connect to a home Internet Service Provider, but declined for three of the four groups with the exception of faculty. Undergraduates (42%, down from 50% in 2006) lead in hours connecting from home, reporting more than 20 hours or more per week, followed by graduate/professional students (40%, down from 47% in 2006). On average, 34% of the faculty reported connectivity over 20 hours per week to a home ISP and staff reported the least hours (18% down from the reported 23% in 2006).

Computer Lab Use by Students Computer lab use was reported at fewer than ten hours per week for 74% of both undergraduates (up from 72% from 2006) and graduate/professional students (down from 77% last year). An additional 19% (statistically unchanged from the 18% in 2006) of the undergraduates and 14% of graduate/professional students (up from 17% from last year) report use of labs between 10 and 20 hours per week. Labs were used between 21 and 60 hours per week by 6% undergraduates and 9% of the graduate students. Less than 1% percent undergraduates and 2% of the graduate/professional students report the use of computer labs above 60 hours per week.

Viruses, Virus protection, and Firewalls In 2007, 15% of the faculty experienced viruses (down from the 20% reported in 2006 and significantly lower than the 58% noted in 2002), compared with 34% of the undergraduates (substantially down from 51% reported in 2006), 29% of graduates (compared to 34% in 2006), and 22% of staff (basically unchanged from 23% reported in last year). These findings represent a considerable improvement over the previous years, yet the current level of viruses still remains problematic and may be attributed to individuals either not installing or failing to update their anti-virus software. Among all populations surveyed, there was a remarkable reduction of viruses experienced on personal computers (undergraduates 11% and graduate/professional students 15%, down from 46% and 54% respectively reported in 2006 by these two student groups), although these same populations experienced almost no viruses on computers in university-owned facilities (undergraduates 2% and graduate/professional students 3%). This finding likely reflects the virus protection programs and controls placed on computers located in campus computer labs. Nine percent of the faculty (down from 12% in 2006) and 12% of the staff (basically unchanged from the 11% reported last year) experienced viruses on their personal computers in 2007. Similar to the student populations, both faculty (3%) and staff (6%) experienced few viruses on OSU computers. Almost all of the poll respondents have an anti-virus program installed on most primary computers at home (staff 93%, faculty 90%, graduate/professional students 87%, and undergraduates 85%). Collectively, across the sampled university community, 66% use personal firewalls, up from 36% reported in 2006.

Awareness and Use of OSU Wireless Network Added to the 2006 Technology Poll was a group of questions covering the campus community's awareness and use of the wireless network. The OSU Wireless Project rolled out September 2005 with now approximately 2700 wireless hotspots available in over 100 buildings and key student gathering areas on campus. The majority of undergraduates (89%, up from 82% in 2006), graduate/professional students (85%, up from 79% in 2006), faculty (79%, up from 73%) and staff (63%, down from last year's reported 65%) indicate being aware of the wireless network. However, few of these individuals had actually activated an account since the 2006 rollout: for both graduate/professional and undergraduates students (44%), faculty (29%), and staff (16%). Even fewer members of the campus community with an activated account are using this resource: graduate/professional students (39%), undergraduates (38%), faculty (22%) and staff (12%).

Awareness and Use of OIT System Awareness Webpage Another addition to the 2006 Poll was a question assessing the campus community's awareness of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) System Status Webpage monitoring e-mail, Carmen, authentication, People Soft, college, or department services. There was an increased awareness of this service across all four populations with 60% of the undergraduates (up from 51% in 2006) aware of this resource, followed by graduate/professional students (58%, up from 47% reported in 2006), faculty (57%, up from 43%) and staff (53%, up from 44%).

Awareness and Use of OIT Anti-Spam Service In the fall of 2005, OSU implemented an anti-spam filtering technology to reduce and block increasing amounts of commercial junk e-mail before it reaches the central server. Awareness of the anti-spam service on the central e-mail system to filter spam from the osu.edu mailbox was assessed as well as perception of its benefits in reducing unwanted e-mail. Eighty-one percent of the faculty (61% in 2006) and 78% of the staff (59% in 2006) are aware of the anti-spam service compared to 55% of the graduate/professional students (34% in 2006) and 52% of the undergraduates (25% reported in 2006). Responding to its perceived effectiveness in reducing unwanted e-mail, 51% of faculty (37% in 2006) and 59% of staff (37% in 2006) agree it is helpful compared to 37% (25% in 2006) of the graduate/professional students and 40% of the undergraduates (21% the previous year).

Use of Handheld and Wireless Devices This year, the overall use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) or palmtop computers decreased on campus to 23% from 25% last year and 28% in 2005. In the 2007 poll, 33% of the faculty indicate the use of handhelds (down from 38% in last year and 40% reported in 2005). Among graduate/professional students, 17% used handheld devices (down from 20% last year and 27% in 2005) and for undergraduates, 15% (13% reported in 2006, but 17% usage two years ago). Among the staff, the use of this handheld technology decreased to 23% from 29% in 2006 (28% reported the previous year). Use of PDAs with wireless network connections increased significantly to 49% over the past two years from the 32% reported in 2006 and 29% the previous year, with undergraduates and staff reporting the highest percentage of wireless PDA connectivity in 2007 (56%, up from 44% and 55%, up from 27% respectively), followed by graduate/professional students (43%, up from 30%), and then faculty (41% up from 33%). The responses indicate an upward trend of PDA use with wireless network connections on campus since 2001 when only 21% of the campus population reported using the wireless handheld devices.

Use of Instructional Technologies

To continue benchmarking future trends on the use instructional technologies and Informational Technologies (IT), the CIO's Office added new or revised questions to the 2007 technology poll. The questions covered instructional applications such as webinars, webcasting, podcasting, and using web-accessibility strategies, resources, tools, and blogs.

Faculty About two-thirds of the faculty strongly agreed or agreed that the current instructional technology environment supports their teaching or instruction (63% v. 59% in 2006) compared to a 68% favorable response of graduate students either strongly agreed or agreed, down slightly from 70% last year. Faculty generally strongly agreed or agreed (74%, compared to 76% in 2006) that OSU computing and electronic resources can be accessed from their lab or office compared with 58% that strongly agreed or agreed the same resources also can be accessed from home (60% reported in 2005). Additionally, 66% of the faculty either strongly agreed or agreed that IT helped increase their impact or productivity (compared to 58% in 2006). Over two-thirds of the faculty (70%) either strongly agreed or agreed that being able to use Information Technology contributes to their professional development (basically unchanged from 69% in 2006). Nearly half of the faculty (49%) report using new instructional technologies (e.g., the web, lab simulations, PowerPoint presentations or other distance learning technologies) in nearly every class session, this response remaining level over the past three years. An additional 17% confirm the use of instructional technologies in several class sessions, compared to 15% in 2006, and 13% the previous year. The number who report never using these tools has dropped from last year's reported 12% to 7% reported in 2007. E-mail remains the most widely used instructional technology (90%), followed by online syllabus and other handouts (80%), web-based materials (75%), and then computer-projected materials (66%). These technologies remain the most commonly used instructional support strategies as noted during the past four years. Further, more than two-thirds of the faculty strongly agreed or agreed that IT was important to their students' success (68%, up from the 63% reported in 2006 and 60% in 2005). Somewhat expected, most faculty either strongly agreed (31% in 2007, basically unchanged from last year but down from 35% in 2005 v. 33% in 2004 and 34% in 2003) or agreed (47% in 2007 and 2006, up from 41% in 2005 v. 45% 2004 and 46% in 2003) that majors in their discipline should be required to demonstrate a certain level of knowledge regarding computer applications in their discipline.

Twelve percent of the faculty using TELR's instructional support services (unchanged from last year's response) reported being very satisfied. Further, the faculty's overall level of satisfaction (very satisfied or satisfied) with TELR's instructional support services remained unchanged from 2006 (49% reported in 2007). Seven percent were somewhat dissatisfied with the instructional support services (compared to 8% in the previous year) and only 3% responded notsatisfied. Forty-one percent of the faculty reported not using the services, basically unchanged from the previous year. Rated by faculty very important considerations or as important in their decision to implement instructional technology in their classes was ease of use (82%, basically unchanged from 85% in 2006), access to software equipment and network (77% in 2007 v. 75% last year), help and support to use instructional technologies (56% in 2007 v. 53% in 2006), maintaining ownership of the intellectual property developed within the context of instruction (40% in 2006 v. 38% last year), followed by rewards for using instructional technologies (28%, basically unchanged from 27% last year). More than half of the faculty (58%) reported using Carmen, the university-supported course management system (up from 53% using either Carmen or WebCT, the previous course management system that was dropped in 2006). Among the recurring reasons faculty provided for not using Carmen or another course management system, 22% opted for using their own course website, 15% had no time for development or believe it doesn't suit their course needs, and12% did not know how to get started. With regard to Carmen functions that faculty would be interested in using, 23% indicated rubric-based assessment and/or webcasting or webconferencing, 20% cited ePortfolios, and 17% cited blogs. The poll included other questions to better understand what assistance faculty need to integrate these technologies into their classes. Unchanged from 2006, approximately one quarter of the faculty are very concerned with the time it takes to learn and use technology (26%, down from 32% in 2005, but still higher that 21% indicated in 2003) or somewhat concerned (44%, up slightly from 40% in 2005, but statistically unchanged from 45% in 2003). This finding may be offset with approximately half of the faculty (47%, compared to 42% in 2006) who report having much of what is needed to learn and use technology and the 9% having everything needed to learn and use technology (10% reported in 2006). For several years the poll has tracked faculty's responses in ways that would be of interest in learning about instructional technology. Generally the most preferred methods have remained unchanged during the past three years; in 2007 faculty cite the following means most often: self instruction (57%), followed by hands-on workshops with instructor (51%), self-paced tutorials (48%), cohort workshops (46%) and then online workshops (37%) and one-on-one mentoring (37%). Self-instruction and hands-on workshops with instructors have remained the most frequently selected formats for learning about technology since 2002. For the past seven years, faculty have been asked, when given adequate support, would they be interested in offering a fully online, distance education course? Faculty responses continue to reflect a steady decline of their desire to offer online/distance education courses. Of the 416 faculty polled in 2007, 26% expressed interest (unchanged for the past three years, but down from 34% reported in 2004 year, 38% in 2003 and 44% reported in 2002), 47% responded they would not (a modest change from the 44% response in 2006, but significantly down from 59% in 2004 and 2003), and 23% indicated uncertainty or did not know (compared to 25% in 2006).

Students Both undergraduates (98%) and graduate/professional students (97%) overwhelmingly feel that Information Technology is either very important in their education (undergraduates 79% v. 74% last year and graduate/professional students 81% v. 77in 2006) or somewhat important (undergraduates 20% v. 23% in 2006 and graduate/professional students compared to 16% v. 21% last year). Eighty-five percent of the undergraduates and 79% of the graduate/professional students strongly agreed or agreed that use of Information Technology makes them marketable to future employers. Both student populations strongly agreed or agreed that the use of IT help make them more likely to succeed in their future academic work, (85% undergraduates v. 87% in 2006 and 80% of the graduate/professional students v. 83% in 2006). With regard to classroom use of instruction technology, 81% of the undergraduates (compared to 74% in 2006) and 64% of the graduate/professional students (compared to 57% in 2006) report taking courses that incorporated instructional technology in nearly all or several of their classes during the past autumn quarter. Forty-five percent of the undergraduates (up from the 41% reported in last year's poll and 48% of the graduate/professional students (compared to 34% in 2006) report having instructors who incorporate instructional technology in nearly every class. An additional 36% of the undergraduates had several classes that utilized instructional technology (33% reported in 2006) as compared to 16% of the graduate/professional students (23% reported last year). Only 3% on the undergraduates and 8% of the graduate/professional students report enrollment in courses that never incorporated instructional technology, approximately half as many reported in the 2006 poll. Given that graduate and professional students likely enroll in focused areas of study rather than in university-wide study, the variations in use of instructional technologies are not unexpected.

One-third of undergraduates indicate interest in taking self-paced fully delivered online classes (33%, basically unchanged from 35% in 2006 v. 36% reported in 2005, but down from 41% in 2002) compared to 28% graduate/professional students (up from 21% reported last year, but down from 36% in 2002). Preference for Instructor-led only online courses also tracked about the same for undergraduates (30%, compared to 32% last year, up from 26% in 2003) and 23% for the graduate/professional students (up somewhat from 19% reported last year, but remaining almost unchanged from 20% in 2002). Interest in hybrid courses that occasionally meet "face-to-face" and the rest of the time online has basically remained constant during the past two years for both groups with undergraduates responding 41% (compared to 44% last year; however, down from 55% in 2002) and 33% of the graduate/professional students (compared to 34% reported in 2006, but down from 43% in 2002). Both student populations remain primarily interested in taking courses that meet "face-to-face." In 2007, two-thirds of the undergraduates (68%, but down from 85% in the 2002 poll) and about three-fourths of the graduate/professional students (74%, down from 85% in 2002) indicate being primarily interested in "face-to-face" classes.